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COLD MOUNTAIN This adaptation of Charles Frazier's novel turns out to be least compelling when it focuses on the fluttering hearts of its protagonists, a Confederate soldier and the woman he loves. Individually, the performances by Jude Law and Nicole Kidman are fine, yet their scenes together deliver little kick. Luckily, most of the movie keeps them apart, with the soldier making his way back to his North Carolina hometown so they can be reunited. His trek is slowed by his encounters with various characters, and these interludes spark the picture. So, too, do the sequences back home, thanks to Renee Zellweger: Her portrayal as a feisty pioneer woman cuts through the occasional sheen of stuffy self-importance, thus ensuring this Mountain never deteriorates into a molehill of unrelenting melancholy. 
THE COOLER Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy), a sad sack whose very presence causes everyone around him to experience bad luck, is employed by Vegas casino manager Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin) to "cool" off customers enjoying a hot streak. Yet once Bernie falls for a sympathetic cocktail waitress named Natalie (Maria Bello), he begins to spread good luck, a situation that calls for drastic measures on Shelly's part. The romance between Bernie and Natalie is both believable and extremely touching, and Macy and Bello deserve kudos for their uninhibited (in all senses of the word) performances. Yet it's Baldwin who delivers the most memorable turn: As an "old-school" Vegas bigwig whose brutality mingles uneasily with his unusual code of honor, he hasn't been this good since his pitbull act in 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross.
ELEPHANT Drawing on Columbine, director Gus Van Sant has made a minimalist movie in which two students go on a shooting spree at an average American high school. Elephant is neither exploitative nor informative, though it's certainly a crock. Van Sant's desire to go for a documentary feel is completely undermined by Harris Savides' bleakly beautiful camerawork, and despite Van Sant's claims that the movie provides no facile answers as to why these kids do what they do, he includes enough background material -- these boys play violent video games, watch documentaries about Nazis and engage in homosexual trysts in the shower -- that it's clear he's tipping the scales. Detached to a fault, Elephant seeks to encapsulate the high school experience but instead ends up grabbing at straws.
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG There may have been better individual performances delivered during 2003 (though not many), but as far as tag-team efforts are concerned, there's no touching Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley in this powerful adaptation of the bestseller by Andre Dubus III. Connelly plays a recovering addict who through petty circumstances ends up losing her house; Kingsley is cast as the Iranian refugee who snatches it up at auction and then refuses to relinquish it. This gripping tale has more on its mind than standard thrills, yet its greatest strength is the manner in which it shifts our loyalties from one character to the next, never allowing us to view either character as a villain (or hero) for too long. 1/2
IN AMERICA Proving that father knows best, writer-director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) teamed up with his grown daughters Naomi and Kirsten to pen this largely autobiographical story in which an immigrant Irish family -- dad Johnny (Paddy Considine), mom Sarah (Samantha Morton) and adorable daughters Christy and Ariel (played by real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger) -- moves to New York and tries to start a new life in a run-down apartment building mostly populated by drug addicts and muggers. A subplot involving a reclusive neighbor (Djimon Hounsou) who warms up to the girls feels a little too pat and predictable; not so the rest of the film, which contains moments so pure and precise that they take us by surprise.
THE LAST SAMURAI Director Edward Zwick has already demonstrated his capacity to handle expansive epics with Glory and Legends of the Fall, but the picture this most resembles is Dances With Wolves. Yet that maxim about familiarity breeding contempt doesn't apply here: For all its recognizable trappings, this is an enormously entertaining film. Tom Cruise stars as a former Civil War hero who accepts an assignment to help train the Japanese emperor's armies in modern forms of combat. This places him in direct conflict with the "old-school" Samurai, but after he's captured, he becomes fond of their customs and forms an alliance with their leader (magnetic Ken Watanabe). Aside from the weak epilogue, there's little to dislike in this impressive undertaking. 1/2
